As you can probably tell, the folks down hear at NMM have taken quite a shine to Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory and the mini series that accompany them. So, in all likelihood, we will be covering each issue as they come out. Having said this, let me tell you about Shining Knight #2.

There are a lot of things that I expected in this issue, and exactly none of them actually happened. Justin frees himself from the police just to transform into 100% hobo in a matter of minutes, all the while being plagued by a bizarre Sheeda apparition that attempts to talk him to death. Meanwhile, Vanguard is rescued by an all-but-unkillable mafia boss with a soft spot for horses and some seriously strange bodyguards. Grant Morrison (writer) is anything but predictable, and works in ways that are far from typical. But, as always, this comic is intriguingly well-written and fun to read. It makes me wish he would just do one mini series at a time, because I don’t want to wait for Shining Knight to roll around again. The art in this comic is just as atypical as the writing. Simone Bianchi uses a lot of flowing, even squiggly lines that from time to time straighten into some very cool, very well done cells. Into this goes Dave Stewarts pastel-like coloring making a very good looking comic.

I have to say that I think Justin (the Shining Knight) is going to be my favorite character out of these new Seven Soldiers. And as I suspected (and the only thing I expected that actually happened), towards the end, a strange old man with a burning hat hints that perhaps Justin could work with others to fight the Sheeda. Maybe six others? But that is all later on. In the meantime, it looks like Justin has a personal battle to fight.

-Fumanchu